Garment cutting tool



April 26, 1938.

F. E.. COOPER 2,115,571

GARMENT CUTTING TOOL Filed July 19, 1957 Patented Apr. 26, 1938 PATENTOFFICE GARMENT CUTTING TOOL Frank E. Cooper,

Independence, M0.

Application July 19, 1937, Serial No. 154,463

3 Claims.

This invention relates to garment manufacture and particularly to theproduction of reinforcements for the side walls of openings, such assurrounding button holes, the ends or corners of the mouth openings ofpockets, and the like. The general object ofthe invention is to providesuch openings with double thickness of cloth around the entire peripheryinstead of only on two sides as now commonly practiced with the usualbutton hole or pocket openings.

A further object of the invention is to produce a device whereby one ormore thicknesses of fabric, may be cut at a single operation to formeither a button hole or the opening of a pocket, or the like in agarment.

Another object of the invention is to produce a device of this kindwhich is adjustable over a wide range for long or short slits, and whichwill completely sever the fabric with clean edges and will maintain itsposition on the fabric to cut straight down through superimposed pliesof fabric without departure from a straight line.

A still further object of the invention is to produce a device of thiskind which is of strong, durable, eflicient, and inexpensiveconstruction; and in order that it may be fully understood, reference isto be had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a fragment of cloth which has been slit orcut in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective View of the same indicating the four flaps.turned back to provide a margin of double thickness, the opposite endand. side walls of the opening being in parallel relation.

Figure 3 is a topplan view of the device for cutting or slitting thecloth, illustrated with three cutting knives. 40 Figure 4 is a sideelevation of the device with the center knife shown dotted, and with oneend knife ready for a cutting stroke and the other end knife in elevatedor inoperative position.

Figure 5 is an end view of the device as shown inFigure 4.

Figure 6 is an enlarged section through one of the knife carrying rodslooking down on top of the arrangement adapted to hold the knives ininoperative position.

Figure 'l is an enlarged fragmental perspective through one of the guidestandards forminga part of the invention.

Figure 8 is an enlarged fragmental perspective of the cutting edge ofone of the end knives of 5 Y-shape.

Figure 9 is a fragmental perspective View of the cutting edge of aY-knife taken from a different angle than as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 10 is a side elevation of the third knife forming a part of theinvention.

The reinforced opening and its method of production will be firstdescribed. Referring to Figures 1 and 2, I is a fragment of a cloth orfabric in which a button hole or the mouth of a pocket is to be cut.with its opposite end and side margins in parallelism and of double orreinforced thickness, a straight slit 2 is made, said slit having itsopposite ends terminating in diverging branch slits 3, either straightas shown, or they may be curved or semi-circular. The proportions of theslits are such that four straight lines (dotted in Figure 1) joining theends of the branch slits 3 will outline the length and width of thecompleted opening, button hole or pocket, desired. The four cloth flapsthus produced are now folded back as in Figure 2, along the dottedlines, the result being the completed opening with its opposite side andend walls in parallel relation and of double thickness (see Figure 2).It will be apparent that the cloth may be slit by any suitableinstrumentalities, and that the angle formed between the companion slits3 and the lengths of said slits, determines the overall length and widthof the complete opening 4 when the flaps are folded back as describedand illustrated. The flaps thus provide reinforcements for doublestitching on all sides of the opening.

It is found in the commercial cutting of dress goods, particularly whenit is of silk or silk-likematerial, the most practical method ofproducing the reinforced opening, is by the use of the tool or deviceshown in Figures 3 to 9 inclusive, since the various slits must be madeas a more or less single operation through the plies of fabric, sinceany slipping of the plies on each other, or a shifting or divergence ofthe cutting tool or its angle of cut, will result in the slitting of thecloth in such fashion that when the dresses are completed the positionof the pockets or button holes will vary in accordance with the locationof that particular piece of fabric in the pile when it was cut. Toovercome this difficulty and to insure a vertical cut, the toolcomprises a more or less weighty base member 5 which is adapted to restupon the superimposed layers of cloth, perhaps to the thickness ofseveral inches.

Secured rigidly adjacent one end of the base plate 5 is an uprightstandard 6, one convenient method of mounting the standard being byhaving its base portion, 1 overlapped and firmly clamped by a pair ofL-shaped clamping members 8 bolted to the base 5. The upper end of thestandard is offset inwardly and is formed with a vertically extendinghead 9 having a vertical bore or guideway slidingly receiving a rod H.The lower end of the rod is enlarged in the drawing as shown as at I2 todetachably receive a generally Y-shaped cutting or miter blade 13, thebranches of the Y being straight as here shown,

To produce a rectangular opening,

but obviously they may be curved or crescent shaped which preserves thegeneral Y-shape of the preferred form of the cutting knife, to produce apair of branch slits in diverging relation to the line of the centerslit as will hereinafter appear. The upper end of the rod H is formed ina driving head M, to which mallet blows or other force may be applied todrive the knife I3 through the fabric. The vertically sliding rod I Iand the guideway [0 having interlocking bayonet slot portions, whereby,when the knife is in operative position it is held against rotation orradial movement to maintain the stem of the Y-knife in proper positionas will hereinafter appear, but when the knife is in inoperativeposition it may be rotated to cause the bayonet slot portions to holdthe knife elevated and out of the way.

In the form of the device as herein shown, the passageway I0 is formedwith an internal vertical slot l5 to receive a projecting guide rib IEon the vertically sliding rod 9. The upper end of the slot l 5communicates with a horizontal radial recess ll formed in a cap piece l8secured to the upper end of the standard 9 and in effect forms a part ofsaid standard. This arrangement is such that when the knife is elevated,the end of its rib I6 is withdrawn from the slot l5, at which time therod II is rotated (it is shown partially rotated in Figure 6), the lowerend of the rib I6 moves into the recess l1, so that the knife is heldagainst downward movement with the stem of its Y cutting edge at rightangles to its operative position.

The other end of the base 5 carries a pair of L-shaped clamp and guidemembers l9, which slidingly receive and act as guides for the base'portion 20 of a second standard or post 2 I, carrying a Y-shaped knife22, the operating parts and cooperative relationship between the post 2|and knife 22 being identical in all respects to the corresponding partsabove described in connection with the standard 6 and the knife l3,except that the parts bear a reversed relation so that the stem portionsof the Y-knives l3 and 22 point towards each other when they are incutting position. The post 2| is adapted to be moved backwardly andforwardly toward and from the post 6 by means of a threaded bolt 23,swivelled to the base 20 of the post 2| and in threaded relation with ablock member 24 fixedly secured to the base plate 5.

It will be apparent that in the making of short slits of the charactershown in Figures 1 and 2, provided the straight portion or main part ofthe slit is not longer than the overall length of the stem portions ofthe Y cutting knives, may be produced as a result of a double cuttingoperation. To perform such operations the device is laid on the pile ofdress goods with the fixed cuting knife l3 vertically overlying thepattern marking one end of the opening to be cut. The operator nowrotates the knife l3 in its bayonet slot which limits the direction ofrotation and makes it impossible to cut the fabric with the Y-knifeturned in the wrong direction, and lowers said knife into contact withthe fabric on the cutting table. One or two blows of a hammer or malletwill drive the knife I3 vertically down through all of the fabric. Theknife is now elevated and locked up out of the way by reverse operation.The operator now manipulates the adjusting bolt 23 until the adjustableknife 22 is lined up with the other end of the pattern marking the slitto be cut, and said knife in turn is used to cut the miter down throughthe pile of fabric. When the two knives are used in the mannerdescribed, the overall length of the slit should not be so long that thestem portions of the two Y-knives do not overlap slightly in theirslitting operations. This overlapping of the cutting members isdesirable to insure that all of the threads are severed.

It will be apparent that convenience in manipulation and the necessityof being able to make short slits for small button holes, will establisha limitation on the length of the stem portion of the two Y-shapedknives, and at the same time will also limit the maximum length of slitwhich can be made with said two knives. To make it possible to cut slitsof any length Within the adjusting range of the tool, I have found itdesirable to provide the guide heads 9 and 25 of the standards withopposed slots 21 (see Figure 7), which form vertical guide ways toslidingly receive a straight cutting knife 28. This knife 28 isremovable and is used to connect the slits cut by the stern portions ofthe miter or Y-shape knives when the overall length of the opening isvgreater than the combined lengths of said stem portions. When such along slit is to be cut, the operations of cutting the end miters may beperformed as described, the miter knives being then elevated and turnedso that their stem portions are out of the way, and then the post 2| isdisplaced laterally so that the knife 28 may be engaged in its guides21, as shown in full lines in Figure 3 and in dotted lines in Figure 4,for cutting the long connecting slit as will be readily understood.

From the above description it will be evident that I have produced areinforced opening in garments and a device for cutting the same whichembodies all of the features of advantage set forth as desirable, andwhile I have described and illustrated the preferred embodiment of theinvention, it is to be understood that I reserve the right to allchanges within the spirit of the invention and without the ambit of theprior art.

I claim:

1. A cloth cutting tool comprising a pair of vertical standards arrangedto overlie the fabric to be cut, a pair of Y-shaped knives verticallyreciprocating on said standards with the stem portions of the knivesprojecting toward one another and arranged in a straight line, andvertical guideways in the opposed faces of said standards.

2. A cloth cutting tool comprising a pair of vertical standards arrangedto overlie the fabric to be cut, a pair of Y-shaped knives verticallyreciprocating on said standards with the stem portions of the knivesprojecting toward one another and arranged in a straight line, means foradjusting one standard toward and from the other and vertical guidewaysin the opposed faces of said standards.

3. A cloth cutting tool comprising a pair of vertical standards arrangedto overlie the fabric to be cut, a pair of Y-shaped knives verticallyreciprocating on said standards with the stem portions of the knivesprojecting toward one another and arranged in a straight line, verticalguideways in the opposed faces of said standards, and means forretaining said knives when at their upper limit of travel with theirstem portions out of alinement.

FRANK E. COOPER.

